His wife is a US citizen. If you were an US citizen and had a choice to give birth in US or in BD, which one would you pick. Plus meyra usually baba mayer barir kachey thaktey chai during child birth. From what I know, Shak's shoshur bari is in MN so there's that angle too. Bummer he won't get to play a Test against OZ but you can become a father for the first time only once and I can respect his wish to be with his wife at that moment. Congrats Shakib. Becoming a father gave me a new found perspective on life and greater empathy for others. I wish the same for you.

After the shin-injury in 2012, Shakib’s bowling action began to alter, since he was visibly putting less pressure on his pivot foot. He was bowling with less body, relying mainly on his arms and shoulder.

Even Shakib’s use of the crease while bowling is one of the salient features missing in his armoury these days. He prefers to dart in deliveries to contain batsmen by denying them width.

Yet batsmen find ways of getting on top of him, mainly by quick use of feet and anticipating the line from the Bangladesh bowler.

The fact that Shakib’s arm-ball has lost its potency is primarily due to his own doing, since he rarely flights the ball in Tests for his stock deliveries. Unfortunately for Shakib, he has lost that edge, unable to surprise batsmen with the ball holding its line.

Without any considerable difference between his stock and arm balls, batsmen comfortably play Shakib through the line, either pressing forward to negate any spin or waiting on the back foot to work the ball away for runs.

It would not be an overstatement to say Shakib’s bowling looks toothless nowadays, and lacks the bite that made him a penetrative spinner.

The overdose of T20 cricket has certainly affected Shakib, as he is bowling to contain even while playing Test cricket. This is what worries his fans the most!